My 13″ Macbook Pro Case
Today was a big day.
I committed to buying a laptop sleeve. The battle came down to memory foam vs. neoprene for protection and I finally bought the Isis Dei 13″ Memory Foam MacBook Sleeve
Made from the stuff NASA engineers created in the 90’s, memory foam is a high-tech, super shock-absorbant, polyurethane material. Our memory foam sleeves are covered in a knit, polyester fabric and have zippers ¾ around the sides so you can use your laptop while it is sitting in your Isis Cover. In relationship to its bulk, memory foam provides perhaps the best shock protection for your laptop.
The choice was between the Isis Dei and the Case Logic Reversible Neoprene Sleeve
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While the Case Logic is appealing for its style and snug fit, it has a one major flaw. The top flap is cute, but makes it impossible to slip your laptop in without pulling the sleeve all the way out of your bag. It also prevents you from safely inserting your laptop while, say, sitting at a table or standing. With normal zippered sleeve, you:
- Unzip to open the sleeve
- Place laptop down inside open sleeve
- Zip closed
In this way the laptop never leaves the safety of whatever it is sitting on. The Case Logic sleeve, in contrast, requires a different type of insertion. I found myself holding the sleeve up in the air with one hand, using my fingers to hold the flap open, and bringing my laptop over in my other hand. I would then grab the corner of the laptop with the hand holding the sleeve (sock puppet style) while i transfered my second hand to the other corner, where it stretched out the sleeve and let the laptop drop down.
I have two real worries about this. First, for a period of time my laptop is held by its corner in one hand, through the slippery neoprene cover, where is is liable to tilt over and fall. Second, the sleeve has to be stretched open with two hands and the laptop allowed to fall down into it. I am concerned that once I became used to the sleeve I would have the habit of letting the laptop fall too quickly, such that it my yank the sleeve right out of my hands. Bottom line: I felt like my laptop was in a continual state of almost falling while I handled it with the Case Logic sleeve, and that just didn’t make be feel good about anything.
The Isis Dei sleeve felt great compared to my experience with the Case Logic. It’s sturdy and can stand upright when held empty, rather than flopping over. It is noticeably thicker than the Case Logic, but still doesn’t add much bulk to your machine. It’s also surprisingly light at just 9oz. The zipper cuts a full 3/4 of the way around the laptop, meaning you can unzip and lay the sleeve completely flat on the table. Speaking of zippers, they are elegantly isolated by a thin lip on the inner side of the sleeve, meaning your laptop is safe from scratching at all times. The sleeve is easy to zip up all the way or leave partially open for easy laptop removal from inside a backpack.
The memory foam does more than just feel funny when you squeeze it. Look at this comparison by flickr user retroleum in which he tests the impact resistance of a memory foam sleeve to that of regular neoprene:
His conclusion: memory foam outperformed neoprene in every stab test.
When it comes to style, the Isis Dei model I bought,the Roach Rasta edition, isn’t ugly, per se. It is attractive in an island-y, Tommy Bahama, brown on khaki kind of way. It is covered in 100% natural hemp, which is very desirable so long as you are a pothead. It has dark brown accents and, perhaps most damning, bright gold zipper tabs. Still, I like it. If you are more of a conformist dickweed than me, you might be interested to know that they sell a tasteful plain black version called, painfully, The Original. They also sell a green one with a fat guy on it, just FYI.
